In that the writer assumes that the things left unsaid are too obvious. Sometimes, trailing off can appear condescending to the readers. Meaning, it’s best to state the reason for the hesitation (in the writer’s mind to meet the other person). Here, the reader is left confused and wanting clarification. It can even suggest indecision on the part of the writer. Trailing off with an ellipse at the end of a sentence can often be puzzling to the reader if the intentions of the writer have not been expressed clearly beforehand.įor example, in the sentence “It should be no problem for me to see you tomorrow …” the ellipsis at the end suggests that something might be bothering the writer about seeing the second person. Thus, omission of critical words that can result in a variation of the original meaning should get avoided. Often, it’s desirable to condense quoted texts and use an ellipsis to imply that you have shortened the original text.īut this should not get done at the expense of altering the original intent of the source. 2) Omission of essential parts in a quotation Therefore, its considered a best practice to complete the sentences and not leave any puzzling blanks. This is because the reader will be left bewildered.

But a similar use of ellipsis in written text can be very irritating to the reader. One might use ‘er’ or ‘erm’ as a trailing off expression during conversations. It is common practice to trail off in the middle of spoken conversations. 1) Using ellipsis like a written form of ‘erm’ or ‘er’ While the use of ellipsis can come in handy on many occasions, the writer should be careful to avoid using them for the following purposes.

Ellipsis example When to avoid using an ellipsis

Ellipsis by Diane Zhou